Award-Winning Curriculum

AiG’s award-winning curriculum for homeschoolers continues to receive some extremely high marks. Over the last couple of years our curriculum team has helped to bring the already excellent work of Diana Waring (history writer) and Debbie & Richard Lawrence (science writers) to a whole new level, as we’ve added extensive color, new graphics, even entirely new textbooks. These, plus our just-released Answers for Preschoolers curricula, are now in use by thousands of families.

I hear “thank you” from grateful parents frequently as I’m out speaking, and now with the newest round of upgrades, we are also seeing Christian schools beginning to integrate these AiG publications—with their strong Bible-affirming creationist worldview—into their courses.

This week we received word that reviewer Cathy Duffy, for many years one of the most respected voices in homeschool curricula, has uploaded new reviews of our God’s Design for Science and History Revealed materials to her website. Here are some highlights. I encourage you to click through to see her exhaustive full-length versions, too. They are probably the most substantial and well-researched of any reviewer articles we’ve seen thus far.

HISTORY REVEALED

Popular convention speaker and storyteller extraordinaire Diana Waring is the author of Answers Genesis’s history program. . . . More than just a history curriculum, each course might well serve as a unit study with its coverage of history, geography, cultures, Bible, Bible history, and the fine arts coupled with plenty of work in language arts and even some science. . . . Each course is presented in nine units with four, weeklong lessons or “phases” per unit. Each of the four phases reflects one of four learning style preferences (based on Myers Briggs learning styles). . . . On top of learning styles, the curriculum incorporates methods that teach to the three learning modalities: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (movement or hands-on learning). . . . [This] isn’t your typical program. It isn’t about memorizing names, dates, and events. Rather, it’s about seeing the hand of God through history, the shaping of cultures and people. The emphasis is on learning in ways that engage the student’s interest so that they grasp the big picture and broad outlines of history. (Cathy Duffy, Curriculum Specialist; from her full review)

GOD’S DESIGN SCIENCE

. . . the third editions (2008-2009) have been totally redesigned with significant content improvements, resulting in an outstanding program. . . . The books in this series all reflect a Christian worldview, including a young-earth view of creation. . . . Hands-on experiments and activities are built into every lesson. These are worthwhile and really relate to topics. The activities and experiments include step-by-step instructions and are designed to teach [the] scientific method as children observe, record information, discuss, and form conclusions. . . . Textbooks are printed in full-color with numerous, high-quality illustrations and excellent graphics. The publisher has also made good use of color to highlight different portions of the lesson, making it easy to spot sections to be used with different students. These features make this series a practical choice for Christian homeschooling families as well as for classroom teachers in Christian schools. . . . I like this combination of information with experiments and activities, plus questions to ensure understanding. The variety of activities effectively reaches children with different learning styles.” (Cathy Duffy, Curriculum Specialist, from her full review)

60 Minutes Misses Something

Make sure you don’t miss our review of the 60 Minutes TV program that aired last night on dinosaur evolution—and what was completely missed.

Video Conference Coordinator Testimony

We praise the Lord of our volunteer Video Conference Coordinators who run AiG video conferences across the nation. Here is a testimony from one of them:

Bob/Jan,  I wanted to let you know about a praise that we found out about this last week.  In March of 2007 we did an [AiG] Genesis—Key to Reclaiming the Culture event at [a Baptist church] in Michigan. The event went well, but since then we haven’t heard anything from that church.

This last week my family had a homeschool group dinner with several other families. One gentleman and I were speaking, and I inquired what church they were with, and he said [this same] Baptist [church].  I said that we had been there and had organized the AiG event.  He said, “That’s where I recognize you from,” and he began to tell me about what has been happening in the church.

Apparently since that night, that church has undergone a significant revival. They started using AiG resources in training the kids, teen, and adult classes. They have been using Living Waters resources in motivating evangelism. The teens specifically have been moved from “pure apathy” to being involved and even doing personal evangelism. Even the kids that didn’t believe anything, or even care, are now witnessing and proclaiming the truth in the Bible. The wife of the man I was speaking with also mentioned that the event motivated them to start homeschooling their son after seeing what he was being taught in public school.

I just wanted to let you know that God is using AiG in great ways. He blessed us with finding out about this church and encouraged us that the work AiG, and the VCCs, are doing is well worth the effort.

—Terry & Michelle Stearns, Video Conference Coordinators.

Devotion

I will go and make and break and cut

(Isaiah 45:2) I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron

We have many crooked places in our path and many obstacles in preaching the gospel to the lost, but we have the promise of help from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying, Ken